The present invention relates to a reclosable container, particularly a cardboard-plastic multilayer composite package for accommodating liquid or paste products, having a rectangular base, four lateral surfaces (body surfaces) positioned essentially perpendicularly to one another, a head region sealed with a rib seam after the package is filled, and a closure element positioned on a slanted surface in the head region.
The field of disposable beverage packaging is currently dominated by the well known right-parallelepiped-shaped cardboard package. Its advantages in regard to cost effective production of the—if necessary—aseptic fillability, distribution, and logistical components in wholesale and retail, as well as very unproblematic storage in the store and with the end-users are clear. In addition to these factors, which can be seen as positive, the multiplicity of the applications of the product should also be emphasized. Thus, for example, the individual product identity is achieved by applying graphical elements, whose variability concerning the design allows multiple different appearances. The cardboard-type containers offer many advantages compared to other disposable beverage packages, such as tubular bag packages, light metal cans, or glass and plastic bottles.
However, a great disadvantage may be determined in regard to the reclosability of this package precisely in relation to the bottle-type containers. The developments of recent years have shown that the importance of reliable reclosability is not to be neglected, since package sizes (family packs) can be increasingly found on the market whose reclosability seems necessary due to the high filling volume. Reclosable cardboard composite containers do, as a rule, have appropriate and well known closure elements, however, they have only been slowly accepted by consumers. This can be primarily attributed to the sometimes impractical and unfamiliar handling of the available closures for cardboard disposable beverage packages, which typically neither allow clean pouring nor satisfactorily solve the requirement of reclosability expected by the consumer (staying sealed while being shaken, etc.).
Many known packages do offer good handling and reclosability, however, they pay for these advantages with unfavorable logistical factors (stackability). Basically, it can be stated that the closure elements projecting from the right-parallelepiped-shaped package must have a certain height so that they are usable with respect to reliable opening and tight reclosure. This overall height leads, however, to problems during stacking and, even after the actual transportation, it happens that individual closure elements are torn off of the packages due to careless handling in the store.
To solve this problem, German Patent Specification 40 15 119 C2 provides that a slanted surface is provided in the head region of the package, on which the closure element is positioned in order to avoid projection of the closure element from the right-parallelepiped-shaped main body. However, this known package is disadvantageous since it requires a relatively large headspace.